Building Block PCC Ltd, the Malta-based insurer that has a fast growing niche and specialist insurance business in the UK, has partnered with Automovel Club de Portugal (ACP), to launch health excess insurance to ACP’s 200,000 members.

Paul Brierley, BBI CEO, said the first month had seen over 3,500 health excess policies sold, way in excess of the launch plan, and he believed the early performance “underlines the scale of the market opportunity for niche and specialist insurance in the EU.”

Brierley explained that the health excess product, which covers the amount of excess client would be responsible for up to the policy limit of €2000, will be sold via a distribution arrangement with ACP Mediação de Seguros.

ACP Mediação de Seguros is a broker created as a joint venture between ACP and Villas-boas, one of largest brokers in Portugal, to sell ACP insurance products only.

Joao Figueiredo, BBI’s head of business for Spain and Portugal, said: “We are delighted to partner with ACP to sell this product to their members. We have designed and launched the product in the UK for use through the European Economic Area.”

“Our ambitions for growth in the niche and specialist insurance sector are strongly predicated on expanding our footprint throughout the EU, and we now have distribution deals for a number of products in Spain, the Republic of Ireland, Iceland and Germany.”